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An Entrepreneur/Marketing major, I only really learned about online marketing when I was done with school. However I started out as a musician, then sound engineer, then entrepreneur to start up a mobile pro audio recording company, and then decided to try other things. SEO/online marketing to me is like learning something as intriguing and rewarding as digital audio production. The professional environment of both have their similarities, too! Glad to be here. :)

Full Name

Jessica Eballar

Display Name

audiore

Location

Seattle, WA

Favorite Thing About SEO

It's dynamic, in demand, and mysterious

Additional Contact Info

www.twitter.com/SEOaudiore

Blog Comments & Posts

Ok, SEOMozer folks, this is my very first YouMoz post and I’m pretty nervous about it. It’s just like songwriting where you compose something from your personal perspective and cringe a bit as you put it out there for everyone to see. (And if any of you are even thinking about checking to see if I know what I’m talking about, let’s make it ...

Thanks for the abridged version! This way I can get the gist and then go back and read it when my long To-Do List gets just a bit shorter! :D Points for catering to the needs of your audience! I'm seeing a trend like this in a lot of writings nowadays - even in books like "Drive" by Pink.

SEO is something that you hear about. It's something you see as a desired skill when you're job hunting. But no one really tells you what it IS when you're first starting out. There are scams out there and they're easy to find. There are numerous articles that touch the surface. What/who do you believe? And where do you start as a newbie in Square One? What kinds of computer skills do you really need to know?

Someone recommended SEOMoz to me. And their beginner's guides were excellent. I was initially intimidated by the blog posts, but the SEO community that frequents the site made them approachable. What got me sold was the staff and the local events that were hosted by SEOMoz: the networking meetup, the webinars, the casual approachability of their staff (even their lawyer), and the humility/brilliance of Rand. A team is only as good as their leader and SEOMoz is a powerful company.

I bought the pro membership on my own even though I was unemployed. I knew it was an investment and would pay for itself. With the knowledge and skills I got from SEOMoz, I landed the last two jobs in my resume. Now the company pays for my pro membership.

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As for improvement, it'd be cool if the search feature on the site was more streamlined to more relevant results. I eventually find what I'm looking for, though.

Thanks for the post. Yeah, one can get into a panic when actual falls very short of the SEO projections. And your methodical approach takes the panic sting go away fast. Knowing what's the current situation of your target market is a good idea. I'm all over that one!

My favorite panel is for point #5. So a low quality page has: few links and sharing functions. So sharing functions is another indicator to Google that that "real users like this page"? But can't the tweets and diggs and others be manipulated? And what about if you have a lot of blog posts that aren't tweeted, etc? Does that bring down the overall SEO quality of your site?

Well, depends on what your conversion is for that page. Let's say for instance it's purchases. You can get a better idea of how well your page is performing by having a call to action button or hyperlink on the page, and seeing how often it's clicked (Crazyegg is so much better than GA in showing this). If you don't have a call to action, you can use GA to see where people went after going to this page - especially the exit page. Did they end up on the page you wanted to get that conversion? This tool could help supplement your GA: http://www.analyticspros.com/resources/search.html

Very well written, Danny. It's like you are literally walking us through the audit. With a lot of SEO articles nowadays, readability definitely helps. I'm pretty sure this book will be an easy page turner. :)

And listening to "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" is totally awesome and inspiring to listen to. Sometimes I listen to this on the way to work and by the time I reach the office, I'm ready to hit the ground running. :)

Thanks for that very insightful post, Tom! It gives some of us newbies a realistic goal to shoot for. With SEO being relatively new, it's almost anybody's guess to figure out where it would take you. You grow with the company - you grow with the industry. And - boy - how the SEO industry has grown!

Completed the survey, too! :) Thanks for putting this out and I'm really curious what the results are. I'm wondering what the income of an SEOer is today considering how new it is, and how vital it is with this kind of technology as costs for overhead get lower and lower.

Thanks so much SEOMoz for the shout out (re: @SEOaudiore). Can't believe it took me so darn long to catch up to this WhiteBoard Friday. And it's pronounced either: "S-E-O-audio-r-e" or "S-E-O-ow-dee-oh-rey." Little mentions like this definitely makes the company personalized. As a consumer, I feel more connected to the company and this also creates brand loyalty.

Great advice, Rand. This kind of linking helps out those sites that collect data from their consumers. If you can extract numbers and patterns that your consumers can post on their site stating where they rank in the heap, then you got a viable badge waiting for you! You pose as a 3rd party site confirming the status of that website.

Ah, so many to choose from! Two of my favorites is Rand's "4 Essential SEO Infographics" because it sums up an SEO professional's work in really clear graphs. A picture paints a thousand words. The other one is MikeTek's Examining the Top 150 In-Linked Posts at SEOmoz because it really helps those that are just starting with SEOMoz's blog posts, and those that might have missed these Must-Read articles. Thanks for all the great work, guys.

I'm excited! Another first for SEOMoz. :) Just observing how you guys are trying out new things gives the rest of us some good ideas and it always makes it interesting for us. We're always guessing what you're going to do next.

When it comes to one's profession, I usually ask myself when the expense will pay for itself and more. Starting off, my pro subscription was out of pocket. It was an investment. And now it has definitely paid for itself, help me get a good SEO job, and the company is now paying for it for me. I once saw this bumpersticker that said: You think education is expensive. Try ignorance. It stuck with me ever since.

Great post, chenry! What I find is most effective is the content itself and charts/videos to supplement it. This makes it bookmark-worthy. But it's also the listed points of take-aways that give me something I can use NOW, and make it stand out from all the other articles I bookmarked. It has a higher chance of me remembering it when I go back and use it to read it in depth and reference it for others.And sometimes a take-away can be quoted when you tweet the article! The take-away lures the reader in because they already found your post useful.

Nice: short enough post to not be ironic, list form, and very Delicious-worthy. I admit, I can get sucked into the many valuable articles out there but it can backfire. Thank goodness for bookmarks, huh? Totally bookmarking THIS one. Great job, everett!

I have an overall confusion about simple homepages. Sure, it's pretty straight-forward but does it provide enough information for unique visitors to decide if they want to go further into this site? And doesn't Google first look at the homepage first to see if it's relevant to certain keywords. Sure, keyword density isn't the whole point here, but with a limited amount of text, it does make it a bit more difficult to provide relevant content.Looking at other successful sites with more "white space" on their homepage, I don't doubt their effectiveness. In fact, the Google Website Optimizer even encourages it. And we can't deny the results SEOMoz yielded with www.conversion-rate-experts.com's help in revamping their homepage. I just still haven't figured out the rhyme/reason how both sides work together though they seem opposed to each other.

Thanks for sharing that, Dr. Pete. Networking can be rather tricky, but I guess a good mixture of online and offline presence does the trick! Pre-online presence makes the in-person meeting easier, and the in-person meeting enriches the online communication.

Yeah, this is totally Main Blog worthy. Great job Mike! It's like the Grammy's list for all of the SEOmoz posts. For newbies, this gives us a good place to start, knowing which ones are the most popular (via in-links). Thank you.

I'm not surprised that Link Building was the top of the list. It's the most challenging and there's so much room for creativity and hidden opportunities. :)

The whole point is that it's a relevant nofollow, then. That makes sense. I find it a hit and miss, but when it does hit, it's pretty worth it. I had one where we ended up with a lot of traffic and - more importantly - more conversions.

Great article, junseth! You've reminded us that it's not just machine we're dealing with, but with humans as well.

Looking forward to the results of your experiement. Will keep my eyes open. My little opinion is that it won't rank so easily. You're up against both snake oil peddlers and people who know what they're doing. There are SEO professionals who already have a head start in optimizing their SERP rankings.

Btw, fellow SEOmozzers, why is it that we look at "Global Search Volume" rather than "Local Search Volume?" And it's local in relation to what?

What a super awesome post RefurbUPS! It was so helpful in demonstrating how website optimization works. I'm definitely going to use this in my defense of it's effectiveness and crucial part of SEO. It will also help as a guide for our gameplan to help our site. There's so much work to do when it comes to "undoing" some Black Hat work! Glad it paid off for you. :)

For more information on Google Analytics, you can go no wrong in looking at Avinash Kaushi's site: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ There's a wealth of information there. (just realized Goodnewscowboy recommended it, too - haha)

When it comes to SEO introverts, I think it has something to do with working in the Internet world and geeking out on numbers. Most of the SEOers I've met have started out as web developers, web designers, math majors, stats majors, and the like. There's not much of a need to have face time with people, I'm guessing. But fortunately enough, the industry is full of outgoing people.

I think with such a dynamic profession as SEO, we need each other and - in the end - the outgoing-ness is almost necessary in order to thrive and grow.

Thank you limedaring. And congrats to you for signing up. i am honored that your first comment posted is here. I promise you that the helpful environment of the event is also reflected on this website. :) Let me know when your first YouMoz post comes up, k.

It's a thriving and helpful community like this which makes the profession of SEO edifying. It provides the non-monetary drive motiviating you to work hard and want to continue working hard. Soon, it won't feel so hard anymore.

Couldn't agree with you more, misterunlucky! I'm happy that it can be applied to other events. And it's a good thing SEOMoz archives these posts. It'll be waiting for you when your next networking event rolls around. :)

I think this is the first time I've seen an SEO really give his/her SEO skills for charity. And it's the "teach a man to fish" kind of gift where everyone can use it to help their own charity, too! I have a friend who could greatly benefit from your tool. He'll be thrilled!

This is a super awesome tool! Thanks you guys. There are so many links out there, where to start first, right? Which ones are worth your time to get? Which ones are your competitors getting and which one of these can you get, too? This tool definitely helps answer these questions.

It'd be cool to see the links listed with their mozTrust rank, too.

And I totally dig the mozBot and the cute - but sad - little site that wishes he was part of the link fun. If only I could give you an extra thumb-up just for that!

Totally signed up! This is my first one. :) I have Skype but I see that the location is in London. So I can assume this is an international call, right? I'm not sure how Skype handles those. Hmmmm. Anyone got any thoughts to this?

I read the Google Website Optimizer case study too. And I'm a little torn between 1) content for Google and those that want an informative home page, and 2) reducing the content for the sake of getting more conversions. Maybe this step in changin the home page is suitable for those that already have a good PR or healthy following. Any thoughts, you guys? :)

Ok, you guys....I love SEO very very much. I'm always excited to learn new stuff and I keep a watchful eye on the next valuable insight....but I wouldn't take it THIS far. Sure, for fun, but some of us find it a bit offensive. Lets keep this a bit more professional, ok. :)

I think the purpose of the tool is to be used as a tool. I don't think it's supposed to be an all-encompassing answer. It's just another way to analyze a page more efficiently so that you can spend that extra time working off of that data to improve/strengthen your online marking efforts.

Ack! I tried it for the first time today and it didn't work. I got to the site I wanted to analyze and pressed the "Analyze Page" but nothing happened. I logged out and logged in again, tried it again and still nothing happened. Did I do something wrong?

I find this article and discussion a little . . . funny. I always thought that SEO was equivalent to the term "online marketing." If people mainly get to your site via a search engine, then this search engine is going to be your best friend. But perhaps online marketing is knowing how your online customers behave whereas SEO is knowing how search engines work. It's up for discussion.

But I don't see how people can belittle SEO or online marketing. Every time I briefly explain it to "the person on the street," they understand that a website is useless unless people know it's there and people return to it. What's the point of setting up shop if no one comes to it? And then I explain to them that it's not easy to get people to the site just as it's not easy to get customers to the store at the get-go. Most people use Google to look for anything and Google is a pretty tricky AI to work with. Companies spend thousands of dollars just to be the first site you see when you look anything up in Google.

And what's more, this is a skill that no college or vocational school or university can ultimately teach you. The rules keep on changing and Google keeps on changing. By the time even a book is published or a corriculum is established, some of it's content is already obsolete. Revisions are in order.

Online marketers/SEO-ers are high in demand, low in supply.

And online marketing IS marketing. And just like "regular" marketing, there is no magic all-purpose solution that's going to get customers to your door, let alone traffic to your site. Anything that guarantees quick results is just about as reliable as those exerciise commercials that promise the same thing.

And the very fact that the rules keep changing, forces online marketers/SEO-ers to keep on their toes, always questioning, always testing, always researching, and sharing discoveries. If not, how else will we learn? Is Google going to tell us everything (haha)? I think the very fact that the rules keep on changing gives it somewhat a level playing field. The novice with fresh ideas can bring something valuable to the table that the long-time veteran didn't see before. We can always learn something new. And who has the TIME to devote to this except the online marketer - a specialist?

What makes a SEO? Perhaps we need a ranking system, like white belt to black belt. We're all SEO-ers. We're all online marketers, just like those that do marketing are marketers. It's where we fit in the ranks that deem an adjective or two to our title.

Great study, chenry! I've never heard of invisble CAPTCHA before, but it looks like a wise alternative. I use my HTC phone to read some blogs, but many times my phone doesn't pick up the CAPTCHA picture. One lost comment for the post.

Just to give everyone a heads up on the LinkDirectory. Jayde was listed there and seems to be benign, but be careful about their follow-up: they try to get you to be a part of iSubmit (one of those previously mentioned by the commending SEO-ers here) which promises 300 links but has been known to keep on charging after you discover they're not a good company to work with. This is probably a big "duh!" to the experienced SEO-ers out there, but just want to get this out and known (esp for the sake of the newbies).Obviously, if it's too good to be true, chances are, it is.

This is DEFINITELY how to look outside of the box. It takes creativity to think it up, but definitely guts to pull it off. I'm certain this post will be referenced more than once by the time the year's over.

FB is a stickler to make sure the profiles are made by real people? I never knew FB did that! I think this is one of reasons why FB keeps itself separated from MySpace. The end users of FB appreciate it and want to keep it that way.

Thanks Tom for the explanation! I'm a total newbie so you being very systematic about it helped a lot. And don't let the repetative comments get you down - The good thing about talking fast is the fact that we can always rewind and hear it again. And, the more we hear it, the easier it will be to remember it!I didn't quite get "Before You Go Live" point #6: Thematically (sp?) grouping. Why would it be more beneficial to put keyphrase "B" in it's own group, separate from keyphrase "D"?I was also a little lost with "PPC Maintenance" point #9: Review analytics. If anything, I got how a high bounce rate is bad, but what/how do I make sure it's in line with the rest of my site?

Hey, I think I figured out some way to do both. Hear me out and let me know what you think.

I used some keywords that were not the typical keywords of my client's industry but were still related . Then, to eliminate the directories that required a fee, I added to the query (not including the quotation marks): "-salesperson" and "-sales associate." To see what my competition might have missed, I took out the name of the occupation of my client by using "-occupation."

Of course this is totally not going to work if your client is a sales person.

Really great tool. It also helps me understand how Google classifies pages based on your query "equations." Wouldn't it be great if it also helped extract the sites our competitors missed? How about - if I be bold to suggest - filtering out directories that charged a fee? :)

Wow, Matt! Great job. I'm just starting this crazy-SEO-business and it's pretty exciting. I can totally relate to your endless SEOmoz reading. One great article links to another very useful one and it just keeps on going. Happy you got see results so quickly.

So what about if you already have a blog with the anchor texts and URLs in the comments? Is there a way you can make them all nofollows? If you can do an automatic function to make them all nofollows, what if there are some that you DO want to keep?